Group insurance cannot be denied under any circumstances, anyway. And, if he's had a gap of credible coverage no less than 63 days, which I'm assuming he would, the pre-existing conditions exclusion is waived entirely.

Well, it's hard to say. It depends on if you consider his previous employer to be Lucasfilm or the Empire. I'm certain Lucasfilm would cover his condition given that he's a highly valued asset. In the case of the Empire, I believe they provide healthcare to their military, and Darth Vader would certainly fall under that category given his service in the Clone Wars, the Battle of Yavin, and the Battle of Hoth.

You realize that what will happen is the insurance companies will simply adjust their rates across the board so that perfectly healthy people will be charged more to compensate for people who have pre-existing conditions?

If I was able to opt out of public healthcare and not pay the taxes associated to public health care. I would be all for it. Honestly, what would happen though is the goverment would run it at a loss when they're caught between raising rates or reducing coverage.

The problem with america's medical infrastructure is the fact that more people sue in america than in other countries (word doc) doctors and insurance agencies then have to jack their rates up so they are prepared when they are sued and take extra careful precautions (increased expenses for medical devices and prescriptions due to extensive medical testing and quality, which in turn also increases rates for insurance.)

It's American society that is damaged. Everyone is constantly on the lookout for a quick buck with little to no effort. People have equated happiness to materialism when it turns out not to be true.

How about you guys cut your disgustingly massive military budget and raise taxes?

"If I was able to opt out of public healthcare and not pay the taxes associated to public health care. I would be all for it. Honestly, what would happen though is the goverment would run it at a loss when they're caught between raising rates or reducing coverage."

What do you mean raising rates? I went to the clinic this morning for tonsillitis an got a prescription for penicillin and I didn't pay a cent. The point of public healthcare is not to have it run like a private business, but have the service available, for free, to those who need it. The costs would then be covered by taxes. Why would you want to opt out of that? The US spends more per capita on healthcare than any industrialized nation, and a huge segment of your population receives absolutely piss poor care and crippling debt. How does that seem like a functional system?

How about you guys cut your disgustingly massive military budget and raise taxes?

Let's do that plan! The only downside I see is there would be a serious re-balance of power throughout the world if we just got rid of 2/3rds of our military. America's allies would basically have to defend for themselves (especially countries in the pacific.) We would basically have to somehow undo the passivization we did to japan and make sure South Korea could hold their ground against their neighbors.

What do you mean raising rates? I went to the clinic this morning for tonsillitis an got a prescription for penicillin and I didn't pay a cent. The point of public healthcare is not to have it run like a private business, but have the service available, for free, to those who need it. The costs would then be covered by taxes. Why would you want to opt out of that? The US spends more per capita on healthcare than any industrialized nation, and a huge segment of your population receives absolutely piss poor care and crippling debt. How does that seem like a functional system?

The costs are artificially inflated by fear of liability from medical institutions and our very sue happy population which inflates medical rates. Sure, if we went to a public system there wouldn't be a company that would take it's margin of profit, but those same companies have a huge incentive to scrutinize all cases for insurance fraud and keep hospital rates low as they can all while competing with other insurance agencies.

There is also incentives for citizens to not go in every time they get a boo boo because they know they will likely have to pay for a portion of it anyways and also risk their rates going up.

Now If you went to a government system, what would happen is you would start to see medical institutions lobbying politicians for more favors their way (higher rates, less mandatory coverage, etc) just as you see banks lobby politicians today.

The US goverment is also an extremely inefficient entity when it comes to money. There are mailmen out there that make more than engineers with masters degrees. The military will buy components from the manufacturing industry for thousands of dollars when the component only costs about $15 bucks to make. (unfortunately, I know this from first hand experience.)

On the public side of things, people would use the public insurance system every single chance they can rather than for serious medical issues. (unless we somehow restricted it to serious medical issues. It still doesn't stop people from coming in and pissing away the medical facilities time)

Eventually the government would get to the point where they have to decide whether they want to choose between raising taxes or running the public health system at a loss.

(of course all this is speculative and I can't prove any of this, but you can't prove that going to a public system will not make things worse either.)

You spend more than the next 26 or 27 world powers on your military. The vast majority of those nations are allied with you. I'm sure someone could pick up the slack.

You keep talking about a public insurance system. I'm talking about having an entirely public system. For an example look at the NHS is Britain. Government owned hospitals with government payed doctors. Yes medications would still come from the private sector, but that would be the extent of it.

This comment was left by a bot to help people who can't access Quickmeme images for any reason. Some of those reasons are described on my FAQ page. More information about me can be found in my first AMA.

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Funny enough I saw a Disney commercial of A.N.T FARM and they had to get George Lucas ' autograph and there was R2D2 in it and C3PO had a gun....it look awful.
I didn't realize they were going to tie Star Wars into their shorty shows...

I am constantly amazed at the number of people in America who simply do not understand how our government works. We do not live in a dictatorial state, he cannot simply say "well screw you congress, I will do whatever I want".

I hope that someday you will educate yourself about how the political system works. I also hope that someday both sides will learn that sticking your fingers in your ears and protesting the other guy only hurts the american people. Have a nice day!

So... I'm not a supporter of Obama's health care plan. (But not for the reason you think - I don't think it goes far enough and actually gives way too much power to health care insurance companies. I think health should be everyone's right and not anyone's profit).

But you realize that once the Affordable Care Act has a timeline, right? It doesn't all come into effect right away - different portions come into place over a period of time, from right away to 2014 to the 2020's. It's not instantaneous.

Again, I don't support the law because I think it doesn't go far enough (yes, it does have a bunch of wonderful elements, but a number of destructive ones as well) - but that's just the way these things work.

That's really not the way non-profit healthcare works. People get paid, but it isn't based on profit. It's fairly simple. It's the same way police get paid, firefighters get paid, scientists who work at the EPA get paid...